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If you've ever seen the 1981 arcade game Tempest in action, then TriBlaster’s influences will be immediately apparent. The new tube shooter utilises the same visual style and gameplay mechanics as the Atari classic, but it does so with enough flair to make it feel fresh.
TriBlaster's early stages look like you are standing at the blocks of a neon-soaked 100m race track. As you progress though the levels, the shape of these stages begins to warp and twist to awesome effect,…

The game which Beyond Space wants to be and the game which Beyond Space actually is are two entities light years apart. Developer Bulkypix clearly intended to make an expansive space drama filled with intergalactic and interpersonal conflict. What they actually made was a good space shooter, weighed down by an overly verbose story and horrible voice acting.
Max Walker, the star of Space Beyond, is an unfortunate soul. Despite being a talented fighter pilot, he is the ugliest man…

Gamebooks may be a niche market, but it is amazing how many people have fond memories of them. Relying on people's nostalgia for the '80s has worked for many gamebook publishers, and now Joe Dever, author of the infamous Lone Wolf series has thrown his hat into the fray with a new four part saga. With the release of Steve Jackson's excellent Sorcery! earlier this year, however, Lone Wolf has its work cut out for it. It's an interesting take on the genre, but one which creates as many p…

Sometimes, you need a break from the puzzles, the physics contraptions - even a good narrative. Sometimes, you just want to shoot things.
Meltdown certainly excels in this area. It harbours thirty missions of randomly generated terrain and enemies, which give you access to a whole host of class and weapon upgrades. Plus - and here's the real draw - up to four players can jump in on the carnage at any given time. As a result, Meltdown is as pure a cooperative shooting experience as one…

Type:Rider is a difficult game to classify. If you boil it down to its bare bones, it's a stunt racer in the mould or Trials or Motoheroz. However, instead of a bike, you're controlling a colon. In fact, the entire game is constructed from letters and punctuation, with each level a kind of alphabet assault course.
What pushes Type:Rider beyond the stunt racer classification is its physics-based contraptions and historical info-bursts. You see, as you work your way through the stages,…

No one can accuse T.E.C. 3001 of being ugly. As your robot runs through a virtual reality world collecting batteries for the benefit of humanity, the two-tone colour pallettes can't help but bring to mind nostalgic memories of '80s video games and Tron.
Pretty visuals aside, though, you'd be forgiven for thinking that this is another run of the mill endless runner. In fact, though it does have endless mode, the heart of the game is its varied campaign challenges.
There's your standar…

If I was describe Orborun using one of those 'it's x meets y' comparisons, I'd say Orborun is Super Monkey Ball meets Tron. By that I mean that you guide a spinning ball though a futuristic neon blue environment, not that you control a banana-crazed Jeff Bridges.
In fact, your rotund robotic pal is trying to reach the end of each stage by rolling along tubular platforms, trying to collect as many points as possible without falling into the abyss below.
Each stage starts with a choice…

Out in the cold depths of space, the hibernation pods open on the ESS Meridian. Groggy and confused, you make your way out to find that the ship is under attack from a virus that has turned the crew in flesh eating monsters.
Having brought the communication systems online, you receive guidance from an eccentric doctor as you explore the vessel, and try to find out what the hell has happened. We're not the only ones getting a System Shock 2 vibe here right?
Dead Effect is a pretty sta…

The slugs in Link the Slug are the result of an experiment gone horribly wrong. And, as science is blame for these colourful abominations, it's science's job to clean up the mess.
To do this, you need to use the power of electricity. Tap two slugs of the same colour and a bolt of electricity will zap between them, eradicating the slugs from existence. Each stage is complete when all slugs have been zapped from the screen. The trick is to clear the screen in such a way that your electr…

It's worth noting that, sometimes, all it takes to create a more poignant gaming experience is attention to presentation and transition. We're not talking about the actual visuals and soundscape of a game, but what lies in-between.
In Quell Memento, you explore the memories of the last occupant of a house based on the remnants of what they've left behind. As you wipe the dust from pictures, you peer closer at glass puzzles that hold special significance. In solving the puzzles therein…

Those who travel in the RPG circles may be familiar with the Anima: Beyond Fantasy game system, but for those who aren't it's set in a strange hybrid fantasy world that has both futuristic and medieval elements to it. The latest release from Bulkypix is set within this dark and Gothic universe, and while Ark of Sinners has high aspirations in its Metroid/vania like gameplay, it falls desperately short of the mark.
Most of the blame can be directed towards the game's flabby controls -…

We've spoken about the renaissance of board games on the iOS before, but one great thing about it aside from fans of these games having digital and portable copies of their favorite titles, is for gamers to experience games in this category that they have never come across. This is the case with us here at AppSpy and Abalone. On the surface it looks like a version of Chinese Checkers but once the rules of the game are explained you'll find one of those games that is simple to learn, bu…

Penumbear by Taco Graveyard and Bulkypix doesn't pull any punches. All too often the App Store finds itself burdened with titles that evoke the likeness of games we know and love, but so few go as far as to understand what made them great and come up with something entirely new in the process.
With nothing more than the ability to run back and forth, jump, and activate various switches in the world, you'll need to solve a complex series of stages that beg you to scratch a little deepe…

Late last year, The Bowling Dead was released, a novel take on the over-saturated zombie genre that had you flinging bowling balls at zombies. To be honest, we didn't foresee that other sports might also lend themselves to killing the undead, so the release of Undead Soccer kind of caught us by surprise. You flick soccer balls at zombies before they can reach you and munch your face off. A simple, and somewhat engaging premise, but like so many games on the iOS platform these days, a h…

We come back to this time and time again, but if you design your game towards encouraging people to spend money on In-App Purchases, it should at most be a gentle nudge, and you should most definitely not have your entire game feel like a hampered grind. Little Amazon sadly falls in this latter category. Lily is trying not only to flee the clutches of the evil demon Gruul, but is trying to save the entire kingdom by running faster than she's ever run before. In a neat addition, the sto…